Review: Alice in Wonderland by Poltergeist Theatre

The London Underground is many things. It is at once a grim, grotty, and stifling necessity, as well as being by far the best way to travel across a crowded metropolis. The way it screams and wails round bends is a reminder of its old age, but the new, slick features make us feel as though we're part of a future. You might have seen some strange things on there yourself, fallen asleep and passed your stop, but you won't have seen anything like what Brixton House and Poltergeist Theatre have dreamt up. Their 2022 Christmas show Alice in Wonderland is now published by Concord Theatricals, and is set entirely on London's iconic underground railway network.

Separated from her mum on a tube carriage leaving Brixton, 11-year-old Alice must bring the train to a halt in order to be reunited with her mother at Stockwell on their way to visit Nani for Christmas. The characters she meets on her journey are recognisable from the original story, but distorted through a post-lockdown lens with some very contemporary challenges to overcome.

Bizarrely, the original title for Lewis Carroll's enduring tale was Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Written just a year after the first tube line opened in 1863, it seems wonderfully appropriate to relocate the story beneath London. The language of the underground is everywhere in the play – almost every line is a pun on the name of a station. The characters are variously talking ‘absolute Chorleywood’ or praying to the ‘Seven Sisters’. Saturated with so much delicious wordplay, the play is fast, funny, and a tongue-twisting treat for young audiences.

Alice herself is a rapper, but like so many first-time writers, doesn't think her work is ready to be performed. She also has some personal issues to work out, and the characters she meets can't solve it for her. But thanks to the resilience she acquires on her journey she is not only able to help herself but also encourages others to share the issues that stand in their way. She preaches tenderness and understanding even to her enemies, recognising that not addressing problems can make them bigger and uglier and angrier. The play is well written and tightly constructed; underneath the imaginative characters is a message: be brave, be gentle with one another, and try to share what worries you.